Offside Hearts

The Warning

Luca

The message arrived just as I stepped out of Coach Daniels' office.

I barely looked at my phone at first, expecting another reminder about practice or the charity fundraiser, but the moment I unlocked the screen, my footsteps came to a complete stop in the middle of the hallway.

Stay away from the journalist.

My grip tightened around the phone.

There was no name attached to the message. Just an unfamiliar number that disappeared the moment I tried calling it back. Whoever sent it didn't want a conversation. They wanted me to read it... and obey it.

I looked around the hallway.

Students were moving from one class to another, laughing, talking, living completely ordinary lives. No one seemed interested in me. No one looked suspicious.

Yet I couldn't shake the feeling that someone had been watching me.

"Luca!"

Tyler jogged toward me with his hockey bag hanging over one shoulder.

“You coming? Coach is waiting.”

I slipped my phone into my pocket before he could notice anything.

“Yeah.”

The locker room was louder than usual.

Music blasted from someone's speaker while the guys joked about the upcoming rivalry game. Normally, I would have joined in, but today every laugh sounded distant.

Coach Daniels walked in a minute later, and the room immediately became quiet.

He looked around at each of us before speaking.

“I have just finished meeting with the university administration.”

His tone was serious enough to make everyone pay attention.

“There have been questions from the media regarding the charity gala.”

A few players exchanged confused looks.

“What kind of questions?” Tyler asked.

Coach hesitated before answering.

They are asking about “Ethan Walker.”

The room became silent.

Ethan's photograph still hung inside the arena.

His records were still talked about by every first-year student who joined the team.

Officially, his death had been ruled an accident.

Most people had accepted that explanation.

I never completely had.

Coach folded his arms across his chest.

“If any reporters or journalism students approach you asking questions about Ethan or the gala, you are not to answer them.”

His eyes moved around the room until they settled on me.

“You direct every question to the university's media office. Is that understood?”

A chorus of agreement filled the locker room.

I answered too, but my mind was somewhere else.

Journalism students.

There was only one person that warning made me think about.

Sienna Brooks.

The same girl I'd seen standing in the Journalism Building only minutes earlier.

The same girl whose eyes had met mine through the window.

Now someone wanted me to stay away from her.

That couldn't be a coincidence.

Practice started ten minutes later.

I usually loved being on the ice.

Everything else disappeared whenever I played hockey.

Today it didn't.

I missed passes I should have made without thinking.

My shots sailed wide.

I nearly collided with one of the defensemen because my attention kept drifting back to the message in my pocket.

The coach blew his whistle sharply.

“Hayes!”

I looked up.

What's going on with you today?

Nothing, Coach.

It doesn't look like anything.

The rest of the team glanced in my direction before returning to the drill.

I pushed myself harder after that, skating until my lungs burned, but it didn't help.

The message refused to leave my mind.

Who knew about Sienna?

Why were they watching her?

More importantly...

What had she found?

By the time practice ended, the arena had started to empty.

Most of the guys hurried toward the locker room, arguing over dinner plans and teasing each other about missed shots.

I stayed behind.

The cold air inside the rink wrapped around me as I sat alone on the players' bench.

The empty arena always had a strange kind of silence.

It reminded me of another evening.

Another practice.

Another teammate.

Two years earlier, Ethan had sat beside me after everyone else had gone home.

He kept looking over his shoulder every few seconds, as though he expected someone to appear.

“You ever get the feeling you are being watched? He'd asked quietly.

I'd laughed.

You have been reading too many crime novels."

He hadn't laughed back.

Instead, he'd stared out across the empty ice.

“I made a mistake.”

*What kind of mistake?*

He'd been quiet for so long that I'd almost thought he wasn't going to answer.

Finally, he looked at me.

"The less you know... the safer you will be."

The memory disappeared as quickly as it had come.

A loud sound echoed through the arena entrance.

I looked toward the glass doors.

Someone was standing outside.

It was Sienna Brooks.

Her camera hung around her neck, but she wasn't taking photographs.

She was searching for someone.

For me.

Our eyes met through the glass.

She didn't wave.

She didn't smile.

She simply stood there, waiting.

Whatever answers she was looking for...

I had a feeling they were connected to the same message sitting in m

y pocket.

I picked up my hockey bag and walked toward the exit.

Outside, Sienna straightened the moment she saw me coming.

Something told me this conversation was going to change everything.